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Kurt Moll, who will celebrate his 75th birthday this coming spring, was not merely
a celebrated opera singer who performed on the world’s most famous stages. The
sophistication and precise diction that characterized his greatest roles – such
as Gurnemanz in Wagner’s Parsifal, Baron Ochs in Strauss’s Rosenkavalier or Sarastro
in Mozart’s Magic Flute – always reminded one that he was a singer who, besides
opera, also paid equal attention to the lied, to which he devoted the same perfectionism.
As was traditional for a bass with a full-bodied, supple timbre and a deep register,
he enjoyed
particular triumphs on the concert podium with ballads ranging from Haydn via
Loewe to Shostakovich. In the genre of the lied he also achieved success with
a repertoire that has usually been dominated by higher voices. If we want to know
how Moll managed to become an exception to the rule, we can easily find out by
listening to his recording of Schubert’s Winterreise from 1982. It is now available
once more on the ORFEO label, and on a single CD for the first-ever time (its
length had made this technically impossible in earlier editions). Together with
his regular accompanist Cord Garben, Kurt Moll here offers what the international
press of the day hailed as an exemplary recording of perhaps the most famous song
cycle of all. This recording was thus awarded the Diapason d’or in France, where
Moll’s Winterreise was held in similar regard to the legendary performances of
Hans Hotter. He was especially praised for his unmannered, introverted interpretation.
His thoroughly cantabile style was without any declamatory harshness, yet remains
completely clear in its articulation. Kurt Moll’s Winterreise thus remains captivating
to the present day and is one of the most important acoustic documents of this
singer’s art. With the ideal balance that he achieved between words and music
he became not just one of the most significant singers of recent decades, but
also one of the singing teachers most in demand.